Systems, Methods, Circuits and Associated Software for Augmenting Contact Details Stored on a Communication Device with Data Relating to the Contact Contained on Social Networking Sites

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are methods, circuits, systems and applications for providing messaging services which may provide for download, synchronization, voicemail-message to text-message translation, direct access and handling of selected voicemail messages through a user&#39;s user interface. Further disclosed are systems, methods, circuits and associated software for retrieving data associated with contacts stored on a communication device from social networking sites and integrating the retrieved data into the operation of the communication device.

PRIORITY CLAIMS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/777,528, filed by the inventors of the present invention, titled“Method, Circuit, System and Application for Providing MessagingServices”, filed on May 11, 2010;

and further claims priority from:

-   -   a. U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/255,113, filed by        the inventors of the present invention, titled “System, Method,        Circuit and Associated Software for Augmenting Contact Details        Stored on a Communication Device with Data Relating to the        Contact Contained on Social Networking Sites”, filed on Oct. 27,        2009; and    -   b. U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/177,122, filed by        the inventors of the present invention, titled “Method, Circuit,        System and Application for providing messaging services”, filed        on May 11, 2009;        each of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in        their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to the field of communication.More specifically, the present invention relates to systems, methods,circuits and associated software for augmenting contact details storedon a communication device with data relating to the contact contained onsocial networking sites.

BACKGROUND

In modern times, cellular phones serve their users for far more thanjust conversation. Therefore, modern cellular networks offer their usersvarious value added services, such as web browsing, messaging, etc. Intoday's cellular networks many of the value added services areimplemented on the network servers or by a third party connected to thenetwork via a distributed data network, such as the internet. For thisreason, a phone user can only access these services via an intermediatemedia service such as web browsing, dialing or IVR (Interactive VoiceResponse). This makes these services difficult and cumbersome to accessand often entails an added charge for the intermediate media service.This fact, often times, may prevent or limit the activation and usage ofthese services.

Accordingly, there is a need in the field of communication, for cellularvalue added services, which services' design minimizes or negates theneed of an intermediate media user access.

A social networking site focuses on building online communities ofpeople who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested inexploring the interests and activities of others. Most social networkservices are web based and provide a variety of ways for users tointeract, such as e-mail, instant messaging and blog like services.Social networking has encouraged new ways to communicate and shareinformation. Social networking websites are being used regularly bymillions of people.

In general, social networking services allow users to create a profilefor themselves, and can be broken down into two broad categories:internal social networking (ISN); and external social networking (ESN)sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Bebo. Both types canincrease the feeling of community among people. An ISN is aclosed/private community that consists of a group of people within acompany, association, society, education provider and organization oreven an “invite only” group created by a user in an ESN. An ESN isopen/public and available to all web users to communicate and aredesigned to attract advertisers. ESN's can be smaller specializedcommunities (i.e. linked by a single common interest e.g.TheSocialGolfer, ACountryLife.Com, Great Cooks Community) or they can belarge generic social networking sites (e.g. MySpace, Facebook etc.).

However, whether specialized or generic there is commonality across thegeneral approach of social networking sites. Users can upload a pictureof themselves, create their ‘profile’, add a textual and/or graphicaldescription of what they have in mind right now, post videos and more.Users can often be “friends” with other users. In most social networkingservices, both users must confirm that they are friends before they arelinked and able to share information with each other. For example, ifAlice lists Bob as a friend, then Bob would have to approve Alice'sfriend request before they are listed as friends. Some social networkingsites have a “favorites” feature that does not need approval from theother user. Social networks usually have privacy controls that allow theuser to choose who can view their profile or contact them, etc.

Several social networks in Asian markets such as India, China, Japan andKorea have reached not only a high usage but also a high level ofprofitability. Services such as QQ (China), Mixi (Japan), Cyworld(Korea) or the mobile-focused service Mobile Game Town by the companyDeNA in Japan (which has over 10 million users) are all profitable,setting them apart from their western counterparts.

Some social networks have additional features, such as the ability tocreate groups that share common interests or affiliations, upload orstream live videos, and hold discussions in forums. Geosocial networkingco-opts internet mapping services to organize user participation aroundgeographic features and their attributes.

Lately, mobile social networking has become popular. In most mobilecommunities, mobile phone users can now create their own profiles, makefriends, participate in chat rooms, create chat rooms, hold privateconversations, share photos and videos, and share blogs by using theirmobile phone. Mobile phone users are basically open to every option thatsomeone sitting on the computer has. Some companies provide wirelessservices which allow their customers to build their own mobile communityand brand it, but one of the most popular wireless services for socialnetworking in North America is Facebook Mobile. Other companies providenew innovative features which extend the social networking experienceinto the real world.

Mobile social networking is currently accomplished using a web browseror via stand-alone applications for mobile devices. Both options operateindependently of the other communication functions of the mobile device.Therefore, although these applications may allow a user to performvirtually any action on the social networks that could be performed on ahome computer, they do not take advantage of the data contained on thesesites in order to improve the other communication functions performed bythe mobile device. Moreover, each application is site specific,communicating with only one social networking site. There is still aneed for improved mobile social networking.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a method, circuit, system and application forproviding messaging services. According to some embodiments of thepresent invention, a VVM (Visual Voice Mail) system may includeserver-side component(s) (network side components) and client-sidesoftware application component(s) installed on a Remote Device (RemoteDevice=mobile communication/computing device such as a cell phone,feature phone, Java phone, smart phone, pocket PC, etc.).

According to some embodiments of the present invention, a VVM clientapplication that may be a component in the client-side softwareapplication may be provided. The VVM client application may be adaptedfor installation or embedment on a Remote Device. The VVM clientapplication may include a communication module adapted to communicatewith the VVM server-side components over a data link such as, but notlimited to, a data service (e.g. UMTS) provided by a cellular operatoror a Wi-Fi service. The VVM server-side components may either beintegral with a voicemail server and/or may interface with a voicemailserver operated by a third party, such as a cellular operator.

According to further embodiments of the present invention, the VVMclient application may communicate with more than one VVM server-sidecomponent, which VVM server-side components may be integral and/or mayinterface with more than one voicemail server, possibly of differenttypes. For example, the VVM client application may communicate with aVVM server-side component integral with and/or interfacing with awireless mailbox and a VVM server-side component integral with and/orinterfacing with a wireline mailbox at the same time. Accordingly, theVVM client application may support more than one voicemail protocol.

The VVM server-side component(s) may be adapted to monitor afunctionally associated voicemail server (i.e. voicemail server withwhich it is integral or interfacing) for voicemail activities related toone or more voicemail accounts. Such activities may include, but are notlimited to, addition, modification or removal of voicemail entries.Exemplary voicemail entries may include, but are not limited to, one ormore of the following: (1) a Voicemail message—a message deposited intothe account by a third party or by the account's owner, (2) aGreeting—Outgoing Message (OGM)—a recording which is played as a welcomemessage for a party that has called the user and has been directed tovoicemail, (3) Other entries that may include voicemail account relateddata (e.g. an entry confirming whether a certain voice message hasalready been transferred/copied to, and stored on, a user's remotedevice). A voicemail message may include one or more of the followingmedia types: (1) Audio, (2) Video, (3) Fax, (4) Text transcription ofthe audio, (5) General text attached to the voicemail message, (6)images, (7) Metadata relating to the entry, (8) email and/or (9) anyother media type known today, or to be devised in the future.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, upon detecting avoicemail activity or change in a voicemail server account beingmonitored, for instance, when: (1) a new voicemail message(s) hasarrived in a given user's voicemail account, (2) a new greeting wasrecorded, (3) a voicemail entry was deleted, (4) a voicemail entry wasupdated due to server or user activities, (5) a voicemail's accountparameters were updated (e.g. the password was changed); the VVMserver-side component(s) may send a “status changed” trigger signal tothe given user's VVM client application. The trigger signal may, forexample, be in the form of a coded short message service (“sms”) messagesent to the user's remote device. The coded signal may containinformation regarding the change made in the voicemail server accountand/or information required to access the account. According to furtherembodiments of the present invention, the VVM client application may beadapted to configure the remote device to suppress or otherwise avoidissuing notifications of said received coded sms messages intended forthe VVM client application. Such SMS notifications may be distinguishedfrom other sms messages according to content, application port or anyother appropriate method.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, one or more ofthe VVM server-side component(s) may automatically encode (e.g. usingAMR, MP3, ACC, 3GPP, Jpeg, GIF, AVI, or any other media type) and/orconvert a copy of voicemail entries stored on the voicemail server intoan encapsulated data structure suitable for transmission over a datalink. Associated with each voicemail entry copy may be one or moreparameters (metadata) associated with the voicemail entry from which thecopy was made. Such exemplary parameters may include (1) date and timeof voicemail entry, (2) length of voicemail entry content, (3) messageorigination details (e.g. phone number of phone from which message wasrecorded), (4) listened/not-yet-listened indicator, (5) is-deletedindicator, and/or (6) any other relevant data; all of which may bestored along with or as metadata within or otherwise associated with anentry copy file.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the VVM clientapplication may be adapted to initiate a synchronization process betweenthe VVM client application storage and the VVM server-side component(s)storage. The VVM client application may initiate a synchronization: (1)Immediately and automatically upon receipt of a “status changed” signal(e.g. a coded sms message, a data message or any other signalingmechanism) from the VVM server-side component(s), (2) whenever thenetwork is unavailable to the remote device (e.g. “out of range”), uponreturn of availability, (3) when manually triggered to do so by a user,(4) periodically, and/or (5) after a “status changed” signal has beenreceived and (2), (3) or (4) have occurred.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, thesynchronization process may include: (1) a transfer of one or morevoicemail entry copies and their accompanying parameters, from the VVMserver-side component(s) to the VVM client application and/or viceversa, (2) an update of one or more of a voicemail's accompanyingparameters in the VVM server-side component(s) storage and/or the VVMclient application storage, (3) a permanent or temporary deletion of oneor more voicemail entries including its accompanying parameters from theVVM server-side component(s) storage or VVM client application storage,(4) a forwarding of one or more voicemail entries to another voicemailaccount, and/or (5) a deposit of a one or more new voicemail entries inthe user's own voicemail account or another voicemail account belongingto a different user.

The synchronization mechanism may be optimized for speed, cost or anyother parameter that may be useful for this process or required todeliver better service.

According to further embodiments of the present invention, thesynchronization process may be automatically triggered from time to timeat the discretion of the VVM client application, in response to localstorage changes or time based for example, local entry deletion, localentry being listened to, etc.

According to further embodiments of the present invention, the VVMclient application may store the retrieved message copies locally on theremote device's non-volatile memory, which memory may either be integralwith the communication device or part of a mass storage device connectedto or otherwise associated with the remote device. According to furtherembodiments of the present invention, after storage of a message copy onthe remote device's local memory, the VVM client application may signala receipt confirmation to the VVM server-side components and the VVMserver-side components may erase their message copies, along withassociated parameters. Alternatively, according to further embodimentsof the present invention, in response to a receipt confirmation messagesignal from the VVM client application, the VVM server-side componentsmay mark the message copies as having been transferred rather thanerasing them.

According to further embodiments of the present invention, one or moreof the VVM server-side components may include, or be functionallyassociated with, a speech recognition module including speechrecognition algorithms adapted to convert an audio portion of a storedvoice message into a text string. Once created, the text string may beassociated with the voice message from which it was derived, for exampleas an accompanying file. According to some embodiments of the presentinvention, at least a portion of the text string may be stored asmetadata associated with a copy of voice message from which the textstring was derived. The text string may be stored (e.g. in the voicemailmessage as one of the accompanying parameters) and may be transferredalong with or instead of the message copy. A user of the VVM clientapplication may select through an interface menu a preference as towhether to receive only voice message copies, only text string copies ora combination of the two.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the VVM clientapplication may be adapted to present a listing of locally stored voicemessages, along with related parameters and/or metadata, as a list ofitems (e.g. on a scroll down menu). The VVM client application may alsopresent the available voice messages in the phone inbox that istraditionally used to list SMS and MMS messages, in a separate listingor both. The VVM client application may also associate the phone's mediaplayer or a special media player or any other media player to themessage. The VVM client application may also access the user's contactsand indicate the name of any contact whose phone number corresponds withthe phone number from which a message has originated.

The VVM client application may provide a user with options including:(1) play/view stored message, (2) read associated metadata, and/or (3)delete any or all of the locally stored messages/data. When a userselects a locally stored message copy, the application may use adecoder, corresponding to the encoder used by the VVM server-sidecomponent(s) to create the copy, to convert the stored message copy into(1) an audible signal which it may then play to the user through atransducer (e.g. speaker) on the remote device, (2) a video or imagesignal which it may then display to the user on the remote device,and/or (3) any other media type suitable for presenting the storedmessage copy to the user on the remote device. When a user deletes alocally stored message, the VVM client application may send a signalback to the VVM server-side component(s), either separately or as partof a synchronization process, indicating which message was deleted, andthe VVM server-side component(s) may delete the corresponding messagefrom the voicemail server and the corresponding message metadata/copy,if the message copy was not previously deleted. According to furtherembodiments of the present invention, the VVM client application may befurther adapted to allow a user to access and utilize metadataassociated with a voice message for other applications, such as to copythe details of the origination of a voice message to his/her localcontacts. The VVM client application may also be adapted to allow a userto create/edit/delete/forward an outgoing message.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the VVM clientapplication may include a VVM server-side component interface moduleadapted to interface with VVM server-side components over a data link.The interface module may use interface parameters stored on aconfiguration file in order to determine a protocol for establishing andmaintaining communication with VVM server-side components. Sincedifferent voicemail servers provide different APIs using differentprotocols for interfacing with their voicemail systems, differentprotocols may be required when communicating with different voicemailsystems and/or their respective server-side components. According tofurther embodiments of the present invention the VVM client applicationmay also support various types of server components.

The configuration data associated with a VVM client application on agiven remote device may be remotely swapped or edited using aconfiguration sms. A cellular operator providing voicemail serverfunctionality in accordance with embodiments of the present inventionmay send a customized configuration sms to the remote device, whichcustomized configuration sms may provide the VVM client application withconfiguration data corresponding to the operator's voicemail serverprotocols.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, a VVM clientapplication user interface may include part or all of the followingexemplary functionalities:

General New message popup - opens VVM Open VVM from application menuBrowse and listen in any order Caller ID correlation with local contactsMessage function Call back Reply via SMS Forward via MMS Forward viaEmail Add/update caller ID in local contacts Archive (store in archive -on device or on server) Delete (from server and client) Sort message(date, caller) Icon indication Read/unread Replied Forwarded Called backPlayer function Play/pause Fast forward/rewind Play to loudspeakers/private speaker Volume control Greeting Record new greetingmanagement Support different greeting types (full, VS, temporary . . . )Activate/deactivate greeting Delete greeting New user tutorial Free testand images triggered actions (example - greeting recording) Integratedhelp

According to some embodiments of the present invention, a VVM networksupport may include part or all of the following exemplarycharacteristics/capabilities/variants:

IMAP variants General IMAP Comverse Unisys Ericsson Alcatel Lucent HTTPvariant Acision Proprietary in house Security Secured Sockets Layer(SSL) StartTLS MD5- Digest authentication Message type Voice (AMR, WAV,MP3 . . . ) support Video (3GPP, MP4, . . . ) Fax (GIF, BMP, JPEG, etc.)

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter regarded as the invention is particularly pointed outand distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification.The invention, however, both as to organization and method of operation,together with objects, features, and advantages thereof, may best beunderstood by reference to the following detailed description when readwith the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1A: is a flow chart showing the steps of an exemplarysynchronization process, in accordance with some embodiments of thepresent invention;

FIG. 1B: is a flow chart showing the steps of an exemplary dynamicprotocol configuration process, in accordance with some embodiments ofthe present invention;

FIG. 1C: is a flow chart showing the steps of an exemplaryvoicemail-message to message-as-text process, in accordance with someembodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 2A: is a block diagram, showing the main components of an exemplaryVVM client application, in accordance with some embodiments of thepresent invention; and

FIG. 2B: is a block diagram, showing the main components of an exemplaryVVM Server-side component(s), in accordance with some embodiments of thepresent invention.

FIGS. 3&4: are exemplary screenshots (1-6) of a VVM client applicationrunning in a Symbian environment, according to some embodiments of thepresent invention.

FIG. 5: are exemplary screenshots (7-9) of a VVM client applicationrunning in a Blackberry environment, according to some embodiments ofthe present invention.

FIG. 6: are exemplary screenshots (10-11) of a VVM client applicationrunning in a Windows Mobile environment, according to some embodimentsof the present invention.

FIG. 7: are exemplary screenshots (12-13) of a “VVM SETTINGS” screenwithin a VVM client application, according to some embodiments of thepresent invention.

FIG. 8: are exemplary screenshots (14-15) of a Greeting Provisioningscreen within a VVM client application, according to some embodiments ofthe present invention.

FIGS. 9 & 9A: are block diagrams of an exemplary system, method, circuitand associated software for augmenting contact details stored on acommunication device, such as a mobile phone, with data relating to thecontact contained on social networking sites, in accordance with someembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 10: is a flowchart containing exemplary steps of operation of asystem, method, circuit and associated software for augmenting contactdetails stored on a communication device, such as a mobile phone, withdata relating to the contact contained on social networking sites, inaccordance with some embodiments of the present invention.

It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration,elements shown in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale.For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggeratedrelative to other elements for clarity. Further, where consideredappropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the figures toindicate corresponding or analogous elements.

It should be understood that the accompanying drawings are presentedsolely to elucidate the following detailed description, are therefore,exemplary in nature and do not include all the possible permutations ofthe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are setforth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention.However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that thepresent invention may be practiced without these specific details. Inother instances, well-known methods, procedures, components and circuitshave not been described in detail so as not to obscure the presentinvention.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the followingdiscussions, it is appreciated that throughout the specificationdiscussions utilizing terms such as “processing”, “computing”,“calculating”, “determining”, or the like, refer to the action and/orprocesses of a computer or computing system, or similar electroniccomputing device, including mobile phone or any mobile device, thatmanipulate and/or transform data represented as physical, such aselectronic, quantities within the computing system's registers and/ormemories into other data similarly represented as physical quantitieswithin the computing system's memories, registers or other suchinformation storage, transmission or display devices.

Embodiments of the present invention may include apparatuses forperforming the operations herein. This apparatus may be speciallyconstructed for the desired purposes, or it may comprise a generalpurpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computerprogram stored in the computer or phone or any other computing device.Such a computer program may be stored in a computer readable storagemedium, such as, but is not limited to, any type of disk includingfloppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, magnetic-optical disks, read-onlymemories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs) electrically programmableread-only memories (EPROMs), electrically erasable and programmable readonly memories (EEPROMs), magnetic or optical cards, or any other type ofmedia suitable for storing electronic instructions, and capable of beingcoupled to a computer system bus.

The processes and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purposesystems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct a more specializedapparatus to perform the desired method. The desired structure for avariety of these systems will appear from the description below. Inaddition, embodiments of the present invention are not described withreference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciatedthat a variety of programming languages may be used to implement theteachings of the inventions as described herein.

Terms in this application relating to distributed data networking, suchas send or receive, may be interpreted in reference to Internet protocolsuite, which is a set of communications protocols that implement theprotocol stack on which the Internet and most commercial networks run.It has also been referred to as the TCP/IP protocol suite, which isnamed after two of the most important protocols in it: the TransmissionControl Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), which were alsothe first two networking protocols defined. Today's IP networkingrepresents a synthesis of two developments that began in the 1970s,namely LANs (Local Area Networks) and the Internet, both of which haverevolutionized computing.

The Internet Protocol suite—like many protocol suites—can be viewed as aset of layers. Each layer solves a set of problems involving thetransmission of data, and provides a well-defined service to the upperlayer protocols based on using services from some lower layers. Upperlayers are logically closer to the user and deal with more abstractdata, relying on lower layer protocols to translate data into forms thatcan eventually be physically transmitted. The TCP/IP reference modelconsists of four layers.

Layers in the Internet Protocol Suite

The IP suite uses encapsulation to provide abstraction of protocols andservices. Generally a protocol at a higher level uses a protocol at alower level to help accomplish its aims. The Internet protocol stack hasnever been altered, by the IETF, from the four layers defined in RFC1122. The IETF makes no effort to follow the seven-layer OSI model anddoes not refer to it in standards-track protocol specifications andother architectural documents.

4. Application DNS, TFTP, TLS/SSL, FTP, Gopher, HTTP, IMAP, IRC, NNTP,POP3, SIP, SMTP, SNMP, SSH, TELNET, ECHO, RTP, PNRP, rlogin, ENRPRouting protocols like BGP, which for a variety of reasons run over TCP,may also be considered part of the application or network layer. 3.Transport TCP, UDP, DCCP, SCTP, IL, RUDP 2. Internet Routing protocolslike OSPF, which run over IP, are also to be considered part of thenetwork layer, as they provide path selection. ICMP and IGMP run over IPand are considered part of the network layer, as they provide controlinformation. IP (IPv4, IPv6) ARP and RARP operate underneath IP butabove the link layer so they belong somewhere in between. 1. Networkaccess Ethernet, Wi-Fi, token ring, PPP, SLIP, FDDI, ATM, Frame Relay,SMDS

It should be understood that any topology, technology and/or standardfor computer networking (e.g. mesh networks, infiniband connections,RDMA, etc.), known today or to be devised in the future, may beapplicable to the present invention.

The present invention includes methods, circuits, systems andapplications for providing messaging services. According to someembodiments of the present invention, a VVM (Visual Voice Mail) systemmay include server-side component(s) (network side components) andclient-side software application component(s) installed on a RemoteDevice (Remote Device=mobile communication/computing device such as acell phone, feature phone, Java phone, smart phone, pocket PC, etc.).

The present invention also includes systems, methods, circuits andassociated software for augmenting contact details stored on acommunication device, such as a mobile phone, with data relating to thecontact contained on social networking sites (hereby: “SNS”). Accordingto some embodiments of the present invention, there may be provided asynchronization engine (hereby: “SE”), which SE may be adapted to resideon the operating memory of a communication device, such as a cellularphone. The SE may be adapted to collect data from SNS's, via socialnetwork adapters, and to display and/or store the collected data on thecommunication device and may be further adapted to integrate thecollected data into the operation of the communication device, which mayinclude integrated usage of the information with any of the device'sembedded functionalities.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, a SE may beinstalled on, or be otherwise functionally associated with acommunication device. Upon initial instancement, the SE may be adaptedto prompt the user to input the SNS's of which he is a member andhis/her credentials (username, password, etc.) for access to each of theSNS's inputted. According to further embodiments of the presentinvention, the SE may be adapted to detect independently what SNS's auser is a member of. The SE may then access the user's profiles on theinputted SNS's using the credentials provided by the user. Subsequently,the SE may compare the contacts stored on the communication device tothe user's contacts/“friends” on the SNS's to search for individualprofiles on the SNS's that are associated with contacts stored on thecommunication device. The SE may be adapted to recognize correspondingprofiles even in cases that the name is not spelled exactly the same oris otherwise slightly different from the details stored on thecommunication device regarding the specific contact. This may beperformed using special heuristics that can perform a few types ofcomparisons and correlations that cover those cases where the contactname is not identical in the phone contact and in the SNS's. Thisalgorithm may search for permutations on a specific name and/or maycompare additional information in suspected cases, for example it maycompare the associated e-mail or residential address as well asadditional parameters. Once the SE has correlated a contact with aspecific profile on a SNS, it may store a pointer/link to that profilefor future updates of data, relating to the contact, from the SNS.According to yet further embodiments of the present invention, once thecorrelation between one or more contacts stored on the communicationdevice and one or more profiles stored on one or more SNS's isestablished, the SE may be further adapted to allow a user to performactions relating to the correlated contacts, on one or more SNS's, viathe communication device and/or to use the contact list stored on thecommunication device while performing actions on a SNS.

According to further embodiments of the present invention, the SE may befurther adapted to collect data relating to the corresponding contacts,such as the contact's homepage URL, birthday, spouse, company, title,phone #, e-mail and more from those contact's profiles on the SNS's andaccording to further embodiments of the present invention, may store thecollected data on the communication device's database and/or on anexterior database, possibly associated with the provider of the SE, theprovider of the communication device and/or the provider of thecommunication service.

According to further embodiments of the present invention the SE may befurther adapted to update/augment the data associated with a specificcontact on one or more SNS's based on data relating to that contactstored on the communication device and/or based on user request.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the SE maycommunicate with the SNS's via SNS adapters, which SNS adapters maycommunicate with SNS's via application programming interfaces (hereby:“API”) provided by the SNS's. The SNS adapters may be adapted totranslate communications from the SE into protocols used by the API'sand vice versa. Each SNS adapter may be adapted to communicate with oneor more SNS's and may be further adapted to optimize communicationsaccording to specific parameters, such as band width consumption. The SEmay be adapted to aggregate and synchronize the data relating to eachcontact, collected from different SNS's, possibly through multiple SNSadapters.

According to further embodiments of the present invention, there may beprovided a presentation and operation module (hereby: “P&O module”),which P&O module may be adapted to reside on the operating memory of acommunication device or otherwise be functionally associated with acommunication device. The P&O module may be adapted to communicate withthe processor/controller of a communication device and to cause theprocessor/controller to present to a user data collected from SNS's,relating to a contact stored on the communication device's database. Forexample, the P&O module may display the contact's latest “profilepicture” or “tag line”, from a social networking website (such asfacebook), when the contact details are displayed. The P&O module maycause the processor/controller to present to a user data, collected fromSNS's, relating to a contact, when the communication device iscommunicating with the contact, when a user accesses the contact'sinformation, upon request and/or at any other time the contact's detailsare presented to the user. The P&O module may retrieve the datacollected from SNS's relating to a contact directly from thecommunication device's database, an external database (in the event thatthe data is stored on an external database) and/or via the SE.

According to yet further embodiments of the present invention, the SEmay be adapted to collect data relating to a contact, from SNS's,periodically, substantially continuously, when triggered by the userand/or upon the occurrence of an event involving the specific contact,such as if the specific contact calls the communication device. The SEmay be adapted to recognize and collect only data that has been updatedsince the previous data collection performed by the SE. According tofurther embodiments of the present invention, the SE may collect dataassociated with certain contacts more often than others, based onpredefined criteria, such as the frequency of communication with thecontact (“frequently used”), the last time the contact was used by thecommunication device (“recently used”) and/or any other relevantdistinction.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, a VVM clientapplication that may be a component in the client-side softwareapplication may be provided. The VVM client application may be adaptedfor installation or embedment on a Remote Device. The VVM clientapplication may include a communication module adapted to communicatewith the VVM server-side components over a data link such as, but notlimited to, a data service (e.g. UMTS) provided by a cellular operatoror a Wi-Fi service. The VVM server-side components may either beintegral with a voicemail server and/or may interface with a voicemailserver operated by a third party, such as a cellular operator.

According to further embodiments of the present invention, the VVMclient application may communicate with more than one VVM server-sidecomponent, which VVM server-side components may be integral and/or mayinterface with more than one voicemail server, possibly of differenttypes. For example, the VVM client application may communicate with aVVM server-side component integral with and/or interfacing with awireless mailbox and a VVM server-side component integral with and/orinterfacing with a wireline mailbox at the same time. For that the VVMclient application may support more than one voicemail protocol.

The VVM server-side components may be integral with a voicemail server(Voicemail Server=a server which provides voicemail services to users).Alternatively, the VVM server side components may be adapted tointerface with one or more voicemail servers used by or associated withcellular operators, possibly via API's associated with the voicemailservers. For this purpose, the VVM server-side components may be adaptedto work with different protocols associated with different voicemailservers and may be adapted to check which protocol is associated with avoicemail server and communicate with it accordingly.

The VVM server-side component(s) may be adapted to monitor afunctionally associated voicemail server (i.e. voicemail server withwhich it is integral or interfacing) for voicemail activities related toone or more voicemail accounts. Such activities may include, but are notlimited to, addition, modification or removal of voicemail entries.Exemplary voicemail entries may include, but are not limited to, one ormore of the following: (1) a Voicemail message—a message deposited intothe account by a third party or by the account's owner, (2) aGreeting—Outgoing Message (OGM)—a recording which is played as a welcomemessage for a party that has called the user and has been directed tovoicemail, (3) Other entries that may include voicemail account relateddata (e.g. an entry confirming whether a certain voice message hasalready been transferred/copied to, and stored on, a user's remotedevice). A voicemail message may include one or more of the followingmedia types: (1) Audio, (2) Video, (3) Fax, (4) Text transcription ofthe audio, (5) General text attached to the voicemail message, (6)images, (7) Metadata relating to the entry, (8) email and/or (9) anyother media type known today, or to be devised in the future.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, upon detecting avoicemail activity or change in a voicemail server account beingmonitored, for instance, when: (1) a new voicemail message(s) hasarrived in a given user's voicemail account, (2) a new greeting wasrecorded, (3) a voicemail entry was deleted, (4) a voicemail entry wasupdated due to server or user activities, (5) a voicemail's accountparameters were updated (e.g. the password was changed); the VVMserver-side component(s) may send a “status changed” trigger signal tothe given user's VVM client application. The trigger signal may, forexample, be in the form of a coded short message service (“sms”) messagesent to the user's remote device. The coded signal may containinformation regarding the change made in the voicemail server accountand/or information required to access the account. According to furtherembodiments of the present invention, the VVM client application may beadapted to configure the remote device to suppress or otherwise avoidissuing notifications of said received coded sms messages intended forthe VVM client application.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, one or more ofthe VVM server-side component(s) may automatically encode (e.g. usingAMR, MP3, ACC, 3GPP, Jpeg, GIF, AVI, or any other media type) and/orconvert a copy of voicemail entries stored on the voicemail server intoan encapsulated data structure suitable for transmission over a datalink. For example, a VVM server-side component may be adapted to encodeaudio messages as mp3 files. Associated with each voicemail entry copymay be one or more parameters (metadata) associated with the voicemailentry from which the copy was made. Such exemplary parameters mayinclude (1) date and time of the voicemail entry, (2) length of thevoicemail entry content, (3) message origination details (e.g. phonenumber of phone from which message was recorded), (4) alistened/not-yet-listened indicator, (5) is-deleted indicator, and/or(6) any other relevant data; all of which may be stored along with or asmetadata within or otherwise associated with an entry copy file.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the VVM clientapplication may include a synchronization module adapted to initiate asynchronization process between the VVM client application storage andthe VVM server-side component(s) storage. The VVM client application mayinitiate a synchronization: (1) Immediately and automatically uponreceipt of a “status changed” signal (e.g. a coded sms message, a datamessage or any other signaling mechanism) from the VVM server-sidecomponent(s), (2) whenever the network is unavailable to the remotedevice (e.g. “out of range”), upon return of availability, (3) whenmanually triggered to do so by a user, (4) periodically, (5) uponactivation, and/or (6) after a “status changed” signal has been receivedand (2), (3) or (4) have occurred.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, thesynchronization process may include: (1) a transfer of one or morevoicemail entry copies and their accompanying parameters, from the VVMserver-side component(s) to the VVM client application and/or viceversa, (2) an update of one or more of a voicemail's accompanyingparameters in the VVM server-side component(s) storage and/or the VVMclient application storage, (3) a permanent or temporary deletion of oneor more voicemail entries including its accompanying parameters from theVVM server-side component(s) storage or VVM client application storage,(4) a forwarding of one or more voicemail entries to another voicemailaccount, and/or (5) a deposit of a one or more new voicemail entries inthe user's own voicemail account or another voicemail account belongingto a different user. In other words, a synchronization process mayinclude:

-   -   a. updating the VVM client application with any voicemail        activities that have occurred on the voicemail server, relating        to the user's account, since the last synchronization; and    -   b. updating the VVM server-side component(s) with any actions        the user has taken within the VVM client application, on his        remote device, since the last synchronization.

According to further embodiments of the present invention, thesynchronization process may be automatically triggered from time to timeat the discretion of the VVM client application, in response to localstorage changes or time based for example, local entry deletion, localentry being listened to, etc. For example, in circumstances that thestorage associated with the VVM client application is full, the VVMclient application may initiate a synchronization process as soon asstorage becomes available (e.g. the user has deleted one or more storedmessages). According to yet further embodiments of the presentinvention, in certain cases where the voicemail server is unavailable,the VVM client application may perform a synchronization with thevoicemail server through a dial-up connection with the TUI interface ofthe voicemail server. The dial-up synchronization may be dependent on auser authorization or confirmation of the action.

According to further embodiments of the present invention, the VVMclient application may include a voicemail storage module adapted tostore the retrieved message copies locally on the remote device'snon-volatile memory, which memory may either be integral with thecommunication device or part of a mass storage device connected to, orotherwise associated with, the remote device. According to furtherembodiments of the present invention, after storage of a message copy onthe remote device's local memory, the VVM client application may signala receipt confirmation to the VVM server-side components and in responsethe VVM server-side components may erase their message copies, alongwith any associated data. The VVM server-side component(s) may retain aportion of the data associated with deleted messages as a record.Alternatively, according to further embodiments of the presentinvention, in response to a receipt confirmation message signal from theVVM client application, the VVM server-side components may mark themessage copies as having been transferred rather than erasing them.

According to further embodiments of the present invention, one or moreof the VVM server-side components may include, or be functionallyassociated with, a speech recognition module including speechrecognition algorithms adapted to convert an audio portion of a storedvoice message into a text string. Once created, the text string may beassociated with the voice message from which it was derived, for exampleas an accompanying file. According to some embodiments of the presentinvention, at least a portion of the text string may be stored asmetadata associated with a copy of the voice message from which the textstring was derived. The text string may be stored (e.g. in the voicemailmessage as one of the accompanying parameters) and may be transferredalong with or instead of the message copy. A user of the VVM clientapplication may select through an interface menu a preference as towhether to receive only voice message copies, only text string copies ora combination of the two. For example, the speech recognition module maybe adapted to convert the first sentence of each voicemail into a textstring, which text-string may then be included within the metadataassociated with the voicemail as an identifier or preview. In anotherexample, the speech recognition module may be adapted to identifycertain key words or phrases (e.g. names, locations, “urgent”, etc.) andconvert them into a text string, which text-string may then be includedwithin the metadata associated with the voicemail as an identifier orpreview. According to further embodiments of the present invention, theVVM client application may include or be functionally associated with aspeech recognition module, which may function as described above, butfrom the client side. According to yet further embodiments of thepresent invention, the VVM client application may be adapted tointerface, via a communication module, with a third party audio-to-textservice provider (Audio-to-text service provider=a party that providesthe services of conversion of audio media into text strings). The VVMclient application may be adapted to send audio files associated with avoice message to said third party and to receive from said third party atext string derived by the third party from the audio files. The VVMclient application may then store the received text string as metadataof the voice message. The VVM client application may be further adaptedto update the voicemail server with the new metadata, immediately and/orduring the following synchronization. Similarly, the VVM clientapplication may be adapted to communicate with any relevant third partyservice provider to perform any analysis or conversion of voicemailsstored on the remote device.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the VVM clientapplication may include an interface module adapted to present a listingof locally stored voice messages, along with related parameters and/ormetadata, as a list of items (e.g. on a scroll down menu) or in anyother appropriate form. The interface module may also present theavailable voice messages in the phone inbox that is traditionally usedto list SMS and MMS messages. The VVM client application may alsoassociate the phone's media player or a special media player or anyother media player to the message.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the VVM clientapplication may also access the list of contacts details stored on theremote device and correlate the origin of stored voice messages (e.g.the phone number from which the message originated) with matchingcontacts on the remote device. Accordingly, details relating tocontacts, stored on the remote device, may be associated withcorrelating voice messages as metadata and may be displayed to the useralong with the other metadata associated with the stored voice messages.

The VVM client application may provide a user with options including:(1) play/view stored messages, (2) read associated metadata, and/or (3)delete any or all of the locally stored messages/data. When a userselects to playback a locally stored message copy, a playback modulecontained in the application may use a decoder, such as an audio, videoor image decoder, corresponding to the encoder used by the VVMserver-side component(s) to create the copy, to convert the storedmessage copy into (1) an audible signal which it may then play to theuser through a transducer (e.g. speaker) on the remote device, (2) avideo or image signal which it may then display to the user on theremote device, and/or (3) any other media type suitable for presentingthe stored message copy to the user on the remote device. When a userdeletes a locally stored message, the VVM client application may send asignal back to the VVM server-side component(s), either separately or aspart of a synchronization process, indicating which message was deleted,and the VVM server-side component(s) may delete the correspondingmessage from the voicemail server and the corresponding messagemetadata/copy, if the message copy was not previously deleted. Again,the VVM server-side component(s) may retain a portion of the dataassociated with deleted messages as a record. When a message isindependently erased/deleted from the voicemail server (for example, dueto the passage of time) the VVM client application may or may not deletethe corresponding message from the remote device's storage during thefollowing synchronization. The decision whether to delete thecorresponding message may be based on a specific user input (i.e. theapplication may prompt the user to decide whether to delete the specificmessage) or a general user preference setting within the VVM clientapplication settings.

According to further embodiments of the present invention, the VVMclient application may be further adapted to allow a user to access andutilize metadata associated with a voice message for other applications.For example, a user may be able to: (1) copy the details of thedepositor/sender of a voicemail into his local contacts, (2) reply tothe depositor/sender of a voicemail via sms, mms or direct call, (3)forward the voice message via email, etc.

According to further embodiments of the present invention, the VVMclient application may be further adapted to communicate with additionalservice providers, such as advertising servers, social network servers,text transcription servers or any other relevant service provider. TheVVM client application may communicate with these service providers viaAPI's provided by said service providers and may include or be adaptedto retrieve the appropriate protocols for these communications. The VVMclient application may be adapted to retrieve from these serviceproviders data relating to voicemails stored on the remote device, suchas further contact details, and to associate this data with the relevantvoice message. For example, the VVM client application may correlatedata associated with a voice message, such as the origin, with datacontained in a profile stored on a social network server and may beadapted to associate other data contained in the same profile, such as aprofile picture, with the specific voice message. Similarly, a contactname associated with a voicemail may be correlated with a facebookprofile, for example. In this fashion, a user may be displayed a currentprofile picture from facebook of the depositor of a voicemail, aside thelisting of the stored voicemail.

For a detailed description of the interfacing between a communicationapplication client application and social networking service providersplease refer to: U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/255,113,filed by the inventors of the present invention, Titled “System, MethodCircuit and Associated Software for Augmenting Contact Details Stored ona Communication Device with Data Relating to the Contact Contained onSocial Networking Sites”. The '113 application is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety into the present description.

The VVM client application may also be adapted to provide for a user tocreate/edit/delete an outgoing message (Outgoing message=a message thatis played to a third party caller who is directed to the user'svoicemail prior to allowing him/her to record a voicemail, oftenreferred to as the “greeting”). The VVM client application may beadapted to allow a user to edit and listen to the new outgoing messagemultiple times, until the user is satisfied and indicates to theapplication that the outgoing message is “ready” or “confirmed”, atwhich time the VVM client application may send the new outgoing messageto the VVM server-side component(s), immediately or during the nextsynchronization. The VVM client application may be further adapted tostore multiple outgoing messages on the remote device, which outgoingmessages may be sent to the voicemail server upon request from the user.For example, the user may store a temporary “I am out of the country”outgoing message on the remote device and instruct the VVM clientapplication, each time he/she goes out of the country, to send thestored “I am out of the country” outgoing message to the voicemailserver.

The VVM client application may also include an option for a user todisable/enable the application. For example, when roaming or wheninterested in conserving battery power. According to further embodimentsof the present invention, the VVM client application may include anoption to automatically disable itself when the remote device is“roaming”.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the VVM clientapplication may be preloaded (ROM, UDA or MMC) on a remote device when auser acquires it. The VVM client application may be preloaded by thecellular network operator as an application or preloaded by the remotedevice manufacturer as part of the remote device delivered to theoperator.

According to further embodiments of the present invention, the VVMclient application may be installed on an existing remote device, “OverThe Air” (OTA), i.e. via remote communication or by any other media,such as via a usb cable. When being installed OTA the user may receive alink via SMS to download the VVM client application, may be directed toinstall the application through the operator web/WAP portal, or by anyother suitable means. The VVM client application may be pre-programmedwith instructions on how to install itself on a remote device includinganother or a previous version of a VVM client application.

The VVM client application can be preconfigured to work with a specificvoicemail server before being installed on a remote device.Alternatively, operational parameters related to a specific voicemailserver, such as server IP, username or password, may be acquired by theVVM client application from a VVM server-side component or a thirdparty. The identity of, and parameters for communication with, the VVMserver-side component or third party may be pre-programmed into the VVMclient application and/or may be sent to the application by aserver-side component via SMS or any other management protocol. This mayalso be done via standard management mechanisms such as OMA DM serverthat may be operated by the cellular operator, the VVM clientapplication provider, a device vendor or any other entity. The VVMclient application may acquire said parameters: (1) upon the firstinstancement of the application, (2) periodically, (3) when prompted bythe user, (4) when receiving a notification that a parameter has beenupdated and/or (5) when the VVM application recognizes that a parameterupdate may be necessary (for example, as part of a troubleshootingprocess when a connection is unavailable).

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the VVM clientapplication may include a VVM server-side component interface moduleadapted to interface with VVM server-side components over a data link.The interface module may use interface parameters stored on aconfiguration file in order to determine a protocol for establishing andmaintaining communication with VVM server-side components. Sincedifferent voicemail servers provide different APIs using differentprotocols for interfacing with their voicemail systems, differentprotocols may be required when communicating with different voicemailsystems and/or their respective VVM server-side components. According tofurther embodiments of the present invention the VVM may also supportvarious types of VVM server-side components in parallel.

The configuration data associated with a VVM client application on agiven remote device may be remotely swapped or edited using aconfiguration sms or any other management protocol. This may also bedone via standard management mechanisms such as OMA DM server that maybe operated by the cellular operator, the VVM client applicationprovider, a device vendor or any other entity. A cellular operatorproviding voicemail server functionality in accordance with embodimentsof the present invention or a VVM server-side component associated withit, may send a customized configuration sms to the remote device, whichcustomized configuration sms may provide the VVM client application withconfiguration data corresponding to the operator's voicemail serverprotocols. According to further embodiments of the present invention,the VVM client application may initiate an update of the VVM clientapplication version, periodically and/or upon receiving a notificationfrom a server-side component that an update is available.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, a VVM clientapplication user interface may include part or all of the followingexemplary functionalities:

General New message popup - opens VVM Caller ID correlation with localcontacts Support all message media types Open VVM from application menuBrowse and listen in any order Speech to text conversion Messagefunction Call back Reply via SMS Forward via MMS Forward via EmailAdd/update caller ID in local contacts Archive (store in archive - ondevice or on server) Delete (from server and/or client) Sort messages byselected parameter (date, caller, etc.) Deposit new message directly inmailbox Icon indication Read/unread Replied Forwarded Called back Playerfunction Play/pause Fast forward/rewind Play to loud speakers/privatespeaker Volume control Greeting Record new greeting management Supportdifferent greeting types (full, VS, temporary . . . )Activate/deactivate greeting Delete greeting New user tutorial Free testand images triggered actions (examples - greeting recording, TUI PINsetup, roaming behavior) Integrated help

According to some embodiments of the present invention, a VVM networksupport may include part or all of the following exemplarycharacteristics/capabilities/variants:

IMAP variants General IMAP Comverse Unisys Ericsson Alcatel Lucent OMTPHTTP variant Acision Proprietary in house Security Secured Sockets Layer(SSL) StartTLS MD5- Digest authentication Message type Voice (AMR, WAV,MP3 . . . ) support Video (3GPP, MP4, . . . ) Fax (GIF, BMP, JPEG, etc.)

An Example of Service Flow and UI—

The following are some illustrative examples of operations of a VVMsystem when integrated into specific cellular operating systems,according to some specific embodiments of the present invention. Theseexamples are presented to further elucidate certain aspects of thepresent invention and as such should not be considered to encompass thefull scope of the present invention. The following examples may be bestunderstood with reference to FIGS. 3-8 (screenshots 1-15), in whichFIGS. 3-4 (screenshots 1-6) illustrate exemplary Symbian screen shots,FIG. 5 (screenshots 7-9) illustrate exemplary Blackberry screen shots,FIG. 6 (screenshots 10-11) illustrate exemplary Windows Mobile screenshots, FIG. 7 (screenshots 12-13) illustrate exemplary Message Handlingscreen shots and FIG. 7 (screenshots 14-15) illustrate exemplaryGreeting Provisioning screen shots.

When a new message is deposited in the user's voice mailbox a “silentSMS” (SMS Zero) notification alerts the VVM client application of astatus change. The VVM client application may, as a result, retrieve themessage from the server with no user interaction (Synchronization). Oncethe message has been downloaded to the remote device the user may benotified by the visual voicemail client application that he/she has anew voice message (examples shown in screenshots 1, 4 & 7). Pressing the“SHOW” key (bottom left) may lead to an “INBOX” view (examples shown inscreenshots 2, 5, 8 & 10) of all new and previous messages. Each messagemay bare the following information—an icon identifying message status(new or listened), CLI or name as retrieved from phone address book,time of message leaving and message length. Selecting one of themessages may lead to a “PLAY” screen (examples shown in screenshots 3,6, 9 & 11), where message details may appear again. Pressing left orright key may move to next or previous messages respectively. Pressing“SELECT” key again may start the play of the message with the ability tomove forward and backward using the left and right key respectively. Themessage may be played in the earphone mode; and the user may press theright key to activate in speaker mode.

Variants to the Flow

There are some variance to the above flow that are based on differentplatforms.

-   -   Message download—in Java platform demo environment the user        needs to authorize the download as part of the usage sequence.        Once the application is signed by the operator (normal procedure        before launch) this action is eliminated.    -   Playing mode: in Symbian the message is heard in earphone mode        with the option for loudspeakers. In Java platform only Nokia        S40 supports this procedure. The rest of Java platform routs the        voice message to the phone's loudspeakers.

Message Handling

Once having selected a specific voice message within the “INBOX,pressing the “OPTIONS” key may lead the user to the “MESSAGE HANDLING”screen (examples shown in screenshots 12-13). Selecting “ADD TOCONTACTS” may allow the user to save the details of the messageorigination in his/her local contacts. Selecting “REPLY” may allow auser to reply to the originator of a voicemail via sms or mms. Selecting“FORWARD” may allow a user to forward the voice message to another uservia voicemail, sms, email, etc. Selecting “DELETE” may delete themessage from the local storage and the server storage. Selecting “VVMSETTINGS” may lead the user to a “SETTINGS” screen where he/she may beable to modify the system settings.

Greeting Provisioning

Within the “SETTINGS” screen selecting “OUT-GONG MESSAGE” or “GREETING”may lead the user to a “GREETING” screen (examples shown in screenshots14-15). Within the “GREETING” screen the user may be able tolisten/record/delete new greetings and select an active greeting to beused currently. Once the user has confirmed his current greeting choice,the VVM client application may synchronize with the voicemail server andreplace the old greeting with the new one, so when a new caller isdirected to the user's voicemail, he/she will be welcomed by the newmessage. Multiple greetings handling can also be provided in varioussituations requiring different notifications to be applied to thevoicemail.

An additional option available in the setting menu is to disable/enablethe VVM client application. This option is for users who wish to disablethe VVM system temporarily, like in a roaming situation.

The present invention can be practiced by employing conventional tools,methodology and components. Accordingly, the details of any such tool,component and methodology are not set forth herein in detail. In theprevious descriptions, numerous specific details are set forth, in orderto provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However,it should be recognized that the present invention may be practicedwithout resorting to the details specifically set forth.

It should also be understood by one of skill in the art that some of thefunctions described as being performed by a specific component of thesystem may be performed by a different component of the system in otherembodiments of this invention.

In the description and claims of embodiments of the present invention,each of the words, “comprise” “include” and “have”, and forms thereof,are not necessarily limited to members in a list with which the wordsmay be associated.

Only exemplary embodiments of the present invention and but a fewexamples of its versatility are shown and described in the presentdisclosure. It is to be understood that the present invention is capableof use in various other combinations and environments and is capable ofchanges or modifications within the scope of the inventive concept asexpressed herein.

While certain features of the invention have been illustrated anddescribed herein, many modifications, substitutions, changes, andequivalents will now occur to those skilled in the art. It is,therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended tocover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spiritof the invention.

1. A mobile phone comprising: a local memory adapted to store contacts,wherein a contact includes a phone number and an identity indicatorassociated with the phone number; a synchronization engine adapted to:(a) correlate a first profile contained on a first social networkingsite with a first contact stored in said local memory; (b) retrieve fromthe first social networking site data contained in the first profile;and (c) associate the retrieved data with the first contact; and apresentation and operation module adapted to cause the control circuitryof said mobile phone to display, in association with the first contact,the retrieved data, upon a graphic user interface of said mobile phone.2. The mobile phone according to claim 1, wherein said synchronizationengine is further adapted to update the retrieved data, from the firstsocial networking site, substantially continuously.
 3. The mobile phoneaccording to claim 1, wherein said synchronization engine is furtheradapted to update the retrieved data, from the first social networkingsite, periodically.
 4. The mobile phone according to claim 1, whereinsaid synchronization engine is further adapted to update the retrieveddata, from the first social networking site, upon the occurrence of anevent on said mobile phone relating to the first contact.
 5. The mobilephone according to claim 1, further comprising a social networking siteadapter adapted to communicate with an application programming interfaceprovided by the first social networking site.
 6. The mobile phoneaccording to claim 1, wherein said synchronization engine is furtheradapted to correlate the first profile with the first contact in a casethat there are differences between a name associated with the firstprofile and an identity indicator associated with the first contact. 7.The mobile phone according to claim 1, wherein: said synchronizationengine is further adapted to: a. correlate a second profile contained ona second social networking site with the first contact; b. retrieve fromthe second social networking site data contained in the second profile;c. aggregate and synchronize the data retrieved from the first andsecond profiles; and said presentation and operation module is furtheradapted to cause the control circuitry of said mobile phone to display,in association with the first contact, the aggregated data, upon agraphic user interface of said mobile phone.
 8. The mobile phoneaccording to claim 1, wherein said correlation is at least partiallybased on an email associated with the first contact.
 9. The mobile phoneaccording to claim 1, wherein said correlation is at least partiallybased on a phone number associated with the first contact.
 10. Themobile phone according to claim 1, wherein said synchronization engineis adapted to independently detect that a user of the mobile phone is amember of the first social networking site.
 11. A method for augmentingcontact details stored on a mobile phone, said method comprising:correlating a first profile contained on a first social networking sitewith a first contact stored in a local memory of the mobile phone,wherein a contact includes a phone number and an identity indicatorassociated with the phone number; retrieving from the first socialnetworking site data contained in the first profile; associating theretrieved data with the first contact; and displaying, in associationwith the first contact, the retrieved data, upon a graphic userinterface of the mobile phone.
 12. The method according to claim 11,further comprising updating the retrieved data, from the first socialnetworking site, substantially continuously.
 13. The method according toclaim 11, further comprising updating the retrieved data, from the firstsocial networking site, periodically.
 14. The method according to claim11, further comprising updating the retrieved data, from the firstsocial networking site, upon the occurrence of an event on the mobilephone relating to the first contact.
 15. The method according to claim11, further comprising communicating with an application programminginterface provided by the first social networking site using a socialnetworking site adapter.
 16. The method according to claim 11, furthercomprising correlating the first profile with the first contact in acase that there are differences between a name associated with the firstprofile and an identity indicator associated with the first contact. 17.The method according to claim 11, further comprising: a. correlating asecond profile contained on a second social networking site with thefirst contact; b. retrieving from the second social networking site datacontained in the second profile; c. aggregating and synchronizing thedata retrieved from the first and second profiles; and d. displaying, inassociation with the first contact, the aggregated data, upon a graphicuser interface of said mobile phone.
 18. The method according to claim11, wherein said correlation is at least partially based on an emailassociated with the first contact.
 19. The method according to claim 11,wherein said correlation is at least partially based on a phone numberassociated with the first contact.
 20. The method according to claim 11,further comprising. independently detecting, by processing circuitry ofthe mobile phone, that a user of the mobile phone is a member of thefirst social networking site.